In Richard Dawkins’s essay about Darwin’s wasp, he makes an argument that nature’s role is to ensure DNA survival. The inductive argument begins by observing the behavior of the wasp. As Dawkins observes, the wasp inserts its stinger into the central nervous system of the caterpillar and paralyzes it. Then the wasp implants larva. The larvae eat the caterpillar alive. This may seem cruel to the human mind if we apply the concept of suffering to this process, but ultimately, this is nature at work. He cites several primary sources of data including the behavior of the wasp to the cheetah and the gazelle. This inductive thought process illustrates and supports Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Dawkins further argues that purposeful design is an illusion. In doing so, Dawkins cites the work of William Paley as a secondary source to argue his own point there is not a divine maker. Paley points out that if a watch has a watchmaker, then it follows that living bodies have a divine designer. But Dawkins asserts this cannot be true, because Darwin has proved that living bodies exist because DNA makes it possible. It is this specific inductive argument of DNA survival which Dawkins uses to refute the idea of purposeful design. We can infer here that Dawkins is interested in proving that what humans think they know about God is at best an illusion. At the end of the day, it is nature that rules. Conversely, we can look at St. Thomas Aquinas’s deductive argument in “King of the Bees” to understand his views on God. He sets forth a premise that the best way to govern is by kingship. Aquinas uses God as a primary source to support his argument. Specifically, Samuel 13:14, “The Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart” is cited to... ... middle of paper ... ...a certain purpose, but if we tried to reverse engineer an organism, we would fail. It cannot be understood in the same way, because we don’t know what it wants. To support the inference, Dawkins cites the example of a cheetah and a gazelle. On the one hand, the cheetah is made for killing the gazelle. Conversely, the gazelle is made for survival, which defeats the cheetah’s purpose. The logical induction is this cannot be God’s utility. Dawkins concludes this is the utility function of DNA and actually “explains the "purpose" of both the cheetah and the gazelle” (Dawkins, 1995). By inference, we conclude that nature is neutral and organisms just exist because they do. It sounds almost Zen. Works Cited Dawkins, R. (1995, November). God's Utility Function. Retrieved July 13, 2011, from http://www.godslasteraar.org/assets/ebooks/Dawkins_Gods_Utility_Function_sec.pdf
In Dawkins’ novel, he aims to prove how the explanation is not a religious answer but a biological and cumulative natural selection. According to Dawkins, the theory of Darwinism is what changed the mystery of our...
The conclusion as stated before but more simplified is, nature has a design, and that the architect of this design is God himself. This is the purpose of the argument as a whole. His entire drive for this argument seemed to convince others that there is a higher being with a higher power. Paley attempted to convince and bring the ath...
William Paley develops his view of the design argument through an example of a wristwatch. He has the reader imagine themselves coming across a watch on the ground. He then asks the reader how they think the watch came to be there or came to exist in the first place. Looking at the watch, Paley says that one will notice the intricate design of the watch and notice that all the parts were put together in such a way to serve a purpose, namely, to tell time. Paley believes that from looking at the watch we will be lead to think that the watch has a clever designer. The watch displays a certain evidence of its own design.
Richard Dawkins is one of the most celebrated atheists in today’s day and age. In Answering the New Atheism, Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker examine his most recognized book: The God Delusion. Is God a delusion? Or are atheists? Many have said “it takes more faith to be an atheist that a theist. “ Hahn and Wiker prove this in their description of Dawkins: “The problem with Dawkins is his against-all-odds insistence that...
...grammed and assemble the intricate design of the human body. I thoroughly agree with Paley’s explanation and find that even the counter arguments do not hold much motive in disproving such a solid teleological theory. The theory of evolution and explicit imperfections in individual beings prove the meticulous nature of the designer having created the being with both physical and intellectual properties to aid in the triumph over death. Paley managed to explain a complicated subject in such a way that the most simpleminded person could not resist his comparison, manipulation and prior consideration explains the existence and survival of the human species which could have only been possible by the workings of a higher being.
The Intelligent Design argument is the most recent formulation of the teleological argument. “Proponents point out that although we cannot know that something has not been designed, we can detect design in systems whose functions are irreducibly complex” (Peterson 108). These systems are single systems where each has parts that contribute to the basic function. Therefore, the removal of any of these parts would cause the system to stop functioning. Overtime these systems produce a result better than what each part would have produced separately. This theory also disputes that the process of natural selection is enough to explain the complexity of living organisms. The theory states that the complexity must come from the work of an intelligent designer.
To begin with, Paley’s watchmaker argument contains a major Fallacy of composition. Paley explains: “Every indicator of contrivance … which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature”.6 This statement infers that like a watch, nature exhibits the same complexity and perceived purpose, and therefore, like a watch, must require a designer. This statement is completely invalid as it assumes because the individual parts of a watch are made for a purpose and are complex, so to must the parts of the universe, and therefore the universe has a creator, which is extremely irrational.
Paley’s analogy came about from the concept of a stone. He encountered this stone during his walk and wondered how it came about (Paley, 1802, 196). He applies the idea that since a designer must have created this stone, this designer must have created other things just like how a watch is created by a watchmaker. His analogy for a watch and its watch maker becomes his key argument because he argues is that you cannot come to a conclusion that a stone was formed by a natural process, just like how when you look at a watch it has a watchmaker(Paley, 1802, 96). When comparing it back to a stone, Paley says someone must have created it. He says design requires a designer, the works of nature also requires a designer and that designer would be God. From this Paley creates his four arguments for God’s existence from analogies, which are argument from design is based on experience, argument from design assumes that we are different in kind, but same in degree, argument from design argues from mind/ thought to design, and argument from design...
Paley's design argument is the most well-known philosophical argument on the subject of the existence of a deity. This argument probes into the property of objects in nature and claims that the very best explanation for their existence is an intelligent mind that created them.
For Dawkins, evolution of a species is dependent upon the transmittance of this information to the next generation; the individual species is irrelevant (2). This theory is a departure from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which concentrates on the species. Species, to Dawkins, are "survival machines" whose purpose is to host these genes, as species are mortals and fleeting, whereas genes are not (2).
“Science proves religious people are stupid and atheists are smart.” This is a somewhat provocative title pulled from an article on a small blog called “The Moral Minefield,” run by a group of Graduate Theological Union students and graduates (Green). This statement is exactly the kind of thing, however, that one would expect Richard Dawkins to wholeheartedly agree with. In fact, he seems to imply this sentiment throughout the entirety of his speech titled, “Militant Atheism.”
Charles Darwin has five parts to his theory of natural selection, firstly the “Geometric increase” which claims that “all living things reproduce in great numbers”, meaning that species may survive but not all will survive because, the resources used for survival for instance ,food will not be enough for all living things. “The struggle for existence” because there is a limited number of resources and can only sustain some and not all, not all living things will survive, however the question lies in which living being will survive?. “Variation” is the third part of natural selection which claims that within those living things there are variations within them that will determine whic...
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Charles Darwin published his On Origin of Species in 1859. By 1870, Darwin’s theory of evolution was widely accepted as fact (van Wyhe, n.d.). This was no easy feat, Darwin was able to provide ample evidence from his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, Darwin successfully implanted an idea. That idea took root and expanded into a profound science. The spread of ideas is at the very heart of civilization. Some ideas survive and thrive, while others wither and die on the vine. It was Richard Dawkins who pioneered the science behind the spread of ideas, and it is to him that those who count on the spread of their ideas, such as Jonathan Kozol, pay deference.
On Darwin’s trip around the world he found something very interesting on the Galapagos Islands. On the isolated islands he found fourteen species of finches with very similar characteristics but they had some differences in their beaks, diet, body size and habitat. Darwin thought the birds had a common ancestor. He thought that some time back some finches arrived on the islands and the finches with the beaks that suited the islands conditions survived this happened on all the islands. When they had offspring the next generation would inherit the same beak. This is a great example of natural selection which was a contributor to how humans evolved. From this Darwin established his theory of natural selection and how slowly over time creatures...